PRESS RELEASE 2019.7.2 AWAZU Kiyoshi WHAT CAN DESIGN DO 2019. 5.18 (Sat) - 9.23 (Mon-hol) Exhibition Title AWAZU Kiyoshi WHAT CAN DESIGN DO Period Saturday, May 18 -Monday, September 23, 2019 Hours 10:00-18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays) *Ticket sales end 30 minutes before closing time Venue Galleries 1-6, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa Closed Mondays (Open on July 15, August 12, September 16 and 23), July 16[Tue] and Sep 17[Tue] No. of works 353 Admission General: ¥1,200(¥1,000) College students: ¥800(¥600) Elem/JH/HS: ¥400(¥300) 65 and older: ¥1,000 Combi tickets1 : “Oiwa Oscar - Journey to the Light” (5.18-8.25) Combi tickets2 : “Where We Now Stand - In Order to Map the Future [1]” (9.14-9.23) General: ¥2,000(¥1,600) College students: ¥1,400(¥1,100) Elem/JH/HS: ¥700(¥600) 65 and older: ¥1,600 Advance Tickets Ticket PIA (Tel 0570-02-9999) P code: [this exhibition] 769-552 [Combi ticket 1] 769-548 [Combi ticket 2] 769-693 / Lawson Ticket (Tel 0570-000-777) L code: [this exhibition] 55367 [Combi ticket 1] 55342 [Combi ticket 2] 54417 EVENTIFY (Family Mart Group) *available at the Fami Port counter at Family Mart stores Organized by 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Kanazawa Art Promotion and Development Foundation) Supported by MURAYAMA Inc. In cooperation with Tsuyama City / TOPPAN PRINTING CO., LTD., Printing Museum, Tokyo / Pictorico FURUKAWA Mika, YANG Seol Planning supervision AWAZU Ken Inquiries 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Tel: 076-220-2800) Supervision about Minjung Art prints Media Contact Exhibition Curator: TAKAHASHI Ritsuko Public Relations Office: ISHIKAWA Satoko, OCHIAI Hiroaki 1-2-1 Hirosaka, Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan 920-8509 Tel: +81-(0)76-220-2814 Fax: +81-(0)76-220-2802 http://www.kanazawa21.jp E-mail: [email protected]*Prices in brackets are for groups of 20 or more and advance tickets
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P R E S S R E L E A S E 2 0 1 9 . 7 . 2
AWAZU Kiyoshi
WHAT CAN DESIGN DO
2019. 5.18 (Sat) -
9.23 (Mon-hol)
Exhibition Title AWAZU Kiyoshi WHAT CAN DESIGN DO
Period Saturday, May 18 -Monday, September 23, 2019
Hours 10:00-18:00(until 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays) *Ticket sales end 30 minutes before closing time
Venue Galleries 1-6, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Closed Mondays (Open on July 15, August 12, September 16 and 23), July 16[Tue] and Sep 17[Tue]
No. of works 353
Admission General: ¥1,200(¥1,000) College students: ¥800(¥600) Elem/JH/HS: ¥400(¥300) 65 and older: ¥1,000
Combi tickets1 : “Oiwa Oscar - Journey to the Light” (5.18-8.25)
Combi tickets2 : “Where We Now Stand - In Order to Map the Future [1]” (9.14-9.23)
General: ¥2,000(¥1,600) College students: ¥1,400(¥1,100) Elem/JH/HS: ¥700(¥600) 65 and older: ¥1,600
Advance Tickets Ticket PIA (Tel 0570-02-9999) P code: [this exhibition] 769-552 [Combi ticket 1] 769-548 [Combi ticket 2] 769-693 / Lawson Ticket (Tel 0570-000-777) L code: [this exhibition] 55367
[Combi ticket 1] 55342 [Combi ticket 2] 54417
EVENTIFY (Family Mart Group) *available at the Fami Port counter at Family Mart stores
Organized by 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
(Kanazawa Art Promotion and Development Foundation)
Supported by MURAYAMA Inc.
In cooperation with Tsuyama City / TOPPAN PRINTING CO., LTD., Printing Museum, Tokyo / Pictorico
FURUKAWA Mika, YANG Seol
Planning supervision AWAZU Ken
Inquiries 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Tel: 076-220-2800)
Supervision about
Minjung Art prints
Media Contact
Exhibition Curator: TAKAHASHI Ritsuko
Public Relations Office: ISHIKAWA Satoko, OCHIAI Hiroaki
1-2-1 Hirosaka, Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan 920-8509
*Prices in brackets are for groups of 20 or more and advance tickets
Since 2006, 2939 works and materials in the artist’s collection have been gifted to this
museum and carefully researched. In 2007, the museum presented “Graphism in the
Wilderness: Kiyoshi Awazu,” exhibiting 1,750 of the gif ted works along workshops,
performances, and valuable testimonies from creators having past involvement in Awazu’s
activities. Based on its ongoing research of the Awazu collection, the museum from 2014 to ’18
hosted a five-part series, “Awazu Kiyoshi: Makurihirogeru,” exploring facets of Awazu’s world
under specific themes such as performance, architecture and photography. Now in 2019—a
decade after Awazu Kiyoshi’s passing—we are presenting an ambitious Awazu Kiyoshi
retrospective, representing the culmination of this museum’s years of research. Inviting his
son, AWAZU Ken, in the role of exhibition supervisor, we will clearly reveal the essence of
Awazu’s design from the perspective of his undying interest in ordinary people and his primary
motivation—“Designing society.” Such is an important perspective for us as well, as people
entrusted with creating the society of tomorrow. Taking this opportunity, furthermore, the
museum will formally open its entire Awazu Kiyoshi archives database to public access and
begin making some works available as open data. Through non-hierarchical image
reproduction, a condition Awazu viewed as a “popular icon” of creative freedom, we will carry
on the artist’s spirit.
Aboutthe Exhibition
2
P R E S S R E L E A S E
A stance of designing societyEven as Japan’s design world matured, Awazu remained an advocate of social causes, firm in
his stance of seeking “how to design society.” His first submission to the Japan Advertising
Artists Club (JAAC) exhibition in 1955 was the poster Umi wo kaese (Give Our Sea Back),
which won him the Grand Prize and launched him into the limelight. Depicting an aged
fisherman at Kujukuri Beach, a fishing grounds appropriated as a US army firing range, it
contained a strong message for the society he had looked hard at. Thereafter, he continued to
create posters supporting the democratization of Korea and banning of thermonuclear
weapons, and remained committed to socially engaged design, based on a stance of
“designing society.” In today’s diversifying society, the question of what we ourselves can do
carries increasing weight and importance. Under this theme, the exhibition will display Awazu
works selected for their socially engaged design, with a focus on his posters.
Our entire Awazu Kiyoshi archives database, open to public accessSince 2006, some 3,000 works and materials in the artist’s collection have been gifted to this
museum and carefully researched. In marking this exhibition held a decade after Awazu’s
passing, the museum will open its entire Awazu Kiyoshi archives database to public access. A
portion of the images will also be downloadable for use. Through non-hierarchical image
reproduction, a condition Awazu viewed as a “popular icon” of creative freedom, we will carry
on the artist’s spirit.
Through Awazu Kiyoshi—reappraising postwar Japanese design
and its impact on design todayAwazu was ever faithful to his own design vision—the reproduction and mass production of
motifs and images evoking Japan’s native land and culture. Skilled at adding his own
interpretation to amplify the image in the viewer’s mind, he created numerous book covers and
theater posters, and played an important role in the culture of the times. Through Sixties works
by Awazu, we will retrospect postwar Japanese design and its response to new cultural
phenomena of the time. Delving into the thought processes of postwar designers, we will
explore the possibilities latent in design.
ExhibitionFeatures
P R E S S R E L E A S E
3
AWAZU KiyoshiBorn 1929 in Tokyo, died 2009 in Kawasaki. Self-taught in
painting and design. In 1955, Awazu received the Japan
Advertising Artists Club Award for his poster Give Our
Sea Back. He was a leader in post-war graphic design in
Japan and involved in the development as creative
expression of reproduction and mass production of
images using printing technology. In 1960, he participated
in the architectural movement "Metabolism", and in 1977,
exhibited his work Graphism, Three Part Work at the
Bienal de São Paulo. From the 1980s onward, he
conducted a study of hieroglyphics and the written
language of Native Americans. He continued to question
not only images and the act of communication, but also
human existence itself within the entirety of all living
things. The foresight and totality of his creative activity still
has a major impact today.
About the artist1
Gallery 1
Changing our societyA designer active in Japan’s postwar reconstruction, Awazu Kiyoshi is known for design motifs
such as turtles and crows evoking Japan’s native land and culture, rendered boldly in primary
colors. Nevertheless, a profound awareness of society permeates Awazu’s works. Approached
by serious thinkers and activists, in need of socially related designs, Awazu Kiyoshi undertook
such jobs with sincere interest. Influenced by Lithuanian-born artist Ben SHAHN (1898-1969),
Awazu felt that, rather than objectify naked facts, design needed to express them in a way that
would touch people’s hearts. Herein we find the crux of Awazu’s design stance.
ExhibitionComposition
2 3
[Poster] International Crisis Rally in Support of the Korean Democratization Struggle(Hibiya Park Public Hall, InternationalCrisis Symposium on Korean Issues) 1977
4
[Poster] Ban Thermonuclear Weapons!1958
[Magazine] 『FALLOUT』(The Japan Council Against Atomicand Hydrogen Bombs)(Cover)1957
P R E S S R E L E A S E
4
Gallery 2
What can design doAwazu Kiyoshi, who at 12 years of age set out amid the ruins of war, found refreshment in
watching movies and drawing. Teaching himself to draw by sketching in the carriages of the
looping Yamanote Line, every day, he looked deeply at the strong lives of hard-working people.
His poster Umi wo kaese (Give Our Sea Back), a work of socially engaged design, was
selected for the Japan Advertising Artists Club (JAAC) exhibition, and launched him into the
limelight. After hearing Herbert BAYER advocate a social role for design at the 1960 World
Design Conference in Tokyo, however, Awazu Kiyoshi grew more committed to socially
engaged activities. As events of national importance were held, such as the 1964 Olympics
and 1970 Osaka Expo, opportunities for designers rapidly expanded, yet Awazu—sensing a
danger of design’s standardization—gave support to the publication of Design Journal and
activities of Bikyoto (Council of Artists for a United Front) and intensified his social activities.
Gallery 3
Aura of duplicationA work submitted in the São Paulo Biennial. Gathering original drawings and illustrations
intended for duplication, Awazu reproduced them collage-like in a triptych, using oil paints.
Bringing a silk-screen printing plate to the São Paulo venue, he duplicated the triptych as a
photograph, transferred the photograph to silk screen, and finally stenciled it on the floor. The
work featured the “popular icons” he had repeatedly employed as motifs—fingerprints, maps,
seal impressions, ABE Sadas, anatomical charts, birds, Mona Lisas, and pages from
dictionaries. “Popular” means “of the people”—the precious existence of each individual in
society. Unlike Walter BENJAMIN (1892-1940, born in Germany) who felt that duplicative
media robbed artworks of their aura, Awazu believed that the aura stolen from artworks
inhabited the duplicative medium and possessed sacred value. The painting Graphism Trilogy
is a crystallization of Awazu’s beliefs.
5 6 7
Umi wo kaese(Give Back Our Sea; original picture) 1955
[Poster] Gan ni uchikato(“Let’s Beat Cancer”; 9th InternationalCancer Congress, 9th InternationalCancer Congress Organizing Committee) 1966
[Poster] Say Something Now I’m Trying(Sogetsu Art Center Design Criticism) 1968
8
Graphism Trilogy 1977
5
Gallery 4
Design—a fertile ground for the birth of culturePerhaps because any design he created displayed his individual flair, Awazu Kiyoshi rarely
undertook commercial design work. He did, however, create an enormous number of book
covers and theater and film posters. Thoroughly reading the script or manuscript, he would
richly amplify the appeal of the book or drama by adding his own interpretation to the design.
In this sense, it was essentially a work of collaboration with other creators. Moreover, placing
high importance on giving design a place in everyday life, he worked to ensure that posters
and books were present in locations central to ordinary people’s lives.
Gallery 4 Adjacent Space
An undying interest in peopleDisplayed in this gallery—Awazu’s photos of Aomori prefecture, inspired by the DAZAI Osamu
novel, Tsugaru. No mere travelogue, that novel examined Dazai’s spiritual homeland in
Aomori. Impressed by a spiritual homeland’s strength to support one in contemporary society,
Awazu traveled to Aomori prefecture to photograph people living and working there, and
created a “photo document of a people’s lifestyle.” Like his early sketches, the photos reveal
the depth of Awazu Kiyoshi’s interest in the lives of ordinary people.